mike2608 Posted December 15, 2022 Report Share Posted December 15, 2022 I found out from my travel agent that even though my cruise itinerary which includes the air2sea part has been paid in full 90 days out, the air2sea part will not be paid to the airline until 30 to 45 days until the actual cruise. Which means I probably won't be able to pick out the seats that I want to get ( preferably aisle seats) I hate to sit in the middle seats.. Especially if I am going from the west coast to the east coast in economy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted December 15, 2022 Report Share Posted December 15, 2022 I've always been able to pick seats on the phone with A2S. Picked some last week for June 2023. You might not be able to pick your own on the airline website. Try calling A2S. Do a fake booking on the airline website to see what's open first.. cruisellama 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovetocruise2002 Posted December 15, 2022 Report Share Posted December 15, 2022 I can pick seats with Air2Sea, both economy and premium. But I fly Delta so not sure if it has anything to do with airlines. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted December 15, 2022 Report Share Posted December 15, 2022 The airline may not fully ticket the reservation immediately after final payment to Air2Sea. It may be a few weeks. Zacharius 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teddy Posted December 15, 2022 Report Share Posted December 15, 2022 We booked flights to Europe through Air2Sea a week or so ago. The Air2Sea agent couldn't pick seats nor could we pick them directly on the airline websites. We paid for the flights and were immediately able to pick our seats through the websites. Paying immediately wasn't ideal for us, but we wanted to be able to choose our seats for the flights since they are long ones. We were assured that the flights we paid for are refundable. The airlines are TAP Air Portugal and Lufthansa, so they may have different regulations than US ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USCG Teacher Posted December 15, 2022 Report Share Posted December 15, 2022 All the Air2Sea rules vary greatly by airline, but you can have your Air2Sea fare paid for even if you haven't paid off the entire cruise fare, but you or your TA has to call in to make it happen, the website apparently doesn't support this type of transaction. I had my MEI TA call in a pay off my Air2Sea for my upcoming August cruise last month and I was immediately ticketed on American Airlines despite the fact that I still owe a few thousand dollars on my cruise fare. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steverk Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 I've used air2sea many times with all the major US airlines. Sometimes I had to wait a month or so, but I was always able to select my seats either through air2sea or through the airline website Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 Maybe it's airline dependent. A2S United domestic flights in early June 2023 and seats are selected. A2S Delta international flights in late June 2023 and seat are selected. Friends have A2S Alaska airline flights in June and have had seats for months. All of my prior A2S bookings let me select seats before payment. It's never occured to me you can't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zacharius Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 12 hours ago, twangster said: Maybe it's airline dependent. It can be airline dependent and even fare class/fare code dependent. Since many/most of the cruise air tickets are negotiated between the airline and the cruise line, many of them may have terms and conditions that differ from "regular" tickets, or even other cruise-procured tickets. Heck, there's even a chance that you may take two trips on United booked through Royal Caribbean in 2023 and they have entirely different rules and restrictions. USCG Teacher 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike2608 Posted December 16, 2022 Author Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 What are the air2sea results when it is American Airlines? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baltodave Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 I have found that when A2S gets you tickets on AA, you can pick seats (you do need the record locater number). However, with British Airways and Air Canada, you have to insist that A2S pay for or actually issue the tickets. We normally book our own flights when flying domestically (using SouthWest). However, for Europe or Alaska we use A2S. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zacharius Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 12 minutes ago, baltodave said: We normally book our own flights when flying domestically (using SouthWest). However, for Europe or Alaska we use A2S. Wait, but Alaska is domestic teddy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baltodave Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 17 minutes ago, Zacharius said: Wait, but Alaska is domestic LOL! True! But SWA does not go to Alaska Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cruisellama Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 23 hours ago, mike2608 said: I found out from my travel agent that even though my cruise itinerary which includes the air2sea part has been paid in full 90 days out, the air2sea part will not be paid to the airline until 30 to 45 days until the actual cruise. Which means I probably won't be able to pick out the seats that I want to get ( preferably aisle seats) I hate to sit in the middle seats.. Especially if I am going from the west coast to the east coast in economy. First try your airline frequent flyer account. Use the record locator on the A2S to pull it into your airline FF record. Then make seat reservations. If your frequent flyer account gives you an error because the tickets were not purchased. Call A2S and they should fix that. (It happened to me too, but the call explaining the issue was able to get resolved ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike T Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 I made final payment a few days before it was due...we had booked a couple months ahead of that. Our TA had already assigned our seats but when it finally got ticketed was when I could make changes to it. We actually didn't mind the selection but did move from aisle/middle to aisle/window in hopes we might just have the two of us in our row. It's the first flight out of Indy to MIA on 2/24/23 and as of now, our plane isn't even full. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zacharius Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 13 minutes ago, Mike T said: It's the first flight out of Indy to MIA on 2/24/23 and as of now, our plane isn't even full. Just a heads up - seat maps are not an accurate representation of actual passenger loads/counts. That can go either way - the plane can appear full when it really isn't (because seats are set aside, but not booked), or it can look empty but is full (because tickets are booked without seat assignments). I have experienced both many times. There are websites where you can pay to get a more accurate idea of passenger loads because of available inventory counts in each fare code, but that obviously doesn't seem worth it to a casual traveler (or even many road warriors for that matter). KristiZ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike T Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 17 minutes ago, Zacharius said: Just a heads up - seat maps are not an accurate representation of actual passenger loads/counts. That can go either way - the plane can appear full when it really isn't (because seats are set aside, but not booked), or it can look empty but is full (because tickets are booked without seat assignments). I have experienced both many times. There are websites where you can pay to get a more accurate idea of passenger loads because of available inventory counts in each fare code, but that obviously doesn't seem worth it to a casual traveler (or even many road warriors for that matter). I didn't even think of the set aside and not booked. If for some reason we end up with a straggler in our row, we'll swap around. Was just trying to have a little extra room for the Wife and I since we fly out at 540am...It was supposed to be like 710a and it's changed 2x. Hopefully we can get into our Air BnB in Miami early...if not, we'll be toting bags around SoBe for a few hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zacharius Posted December 16, 2022 Report Share Posted December 16, 2022 21 minutes ago, Mike T said: I didn't even think of the set aside and not booked. If for some reason we end up with a straggler in our row, we'll swap around. Was just trying to have a little extra room for the Wife and I since we fly out at 540am...It was supposed to be like 710a and it's changed 2x. Hopefully we can get into our Air BnB in Miami early...if not, we'll be toting bags around SoBe for a few hours. Ugh, I hate those early flights. I don't mind 6am flights, but there's just something mentally more difficult to me about flights in the 5:00 hour. The worst are flights leaving India that are constantly at like 3am. Every time I have to take the 3:30am Delhi to London flight I just cringe...and then sleep the entire way, which I do admit is lovely. Definitely start the communication with your AirBnB host early. If they're nice, they will let you know if there's a chance to get in early, and then let you know when it's ready. I've done that many times when the hosts are actually helpful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steverk Posted December 17, 2022 Report Share Posted December 17, 2022 I always figured, the best seat on the plane or the worst. If they don't land at the same time, then I don't want to be on the plane! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokeybandit Posted December 17, 2022 Report Share Posted December 17, 2022 I've been on 15 flight segments this year. I can only think of one flight (a 9:45pm Monday flight from ORD to DEN) that wasn't at least 95% full. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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